Opichen to Dzitbalche through Grutas Calcehtok

We slept for 12 hours straight after which we felt a little bit refreshed but still far from full recovery. The breakfast was very nutritious, at least I’d like to think so. French baguette with real butter, some ham, cheese and coffee. We were going to take it easy today. First we cycled some 10 km to Grutas Calcehtok (Caves Calcehtok) and then wanted to do 13 more to Maxcanu. The first part was hard especially when we had to climb 2km up to the caves. Shame or not, we had to push the bikes. The legs just wouldn’t do it for us. The caves are huge.

Grutas Calcehtok entrance

They’re a former cenote, which dried up after a meteorite hit the ground not far from here and all the water disappeared. They are not really looked after. We went in with a local guy who had some head lamps to share with the visitors. I was surprised how much I actually understood of what he had to say. He explained that the caves were used by the Maya people as the last bastion against the conquering Spaniards.

He pointed out several defence walls and loads of pottery fragments left behind by the Mayans.

inside the caves

We walked around for about an hour and he showed us some pretty huge stalactites and stalagmites. The humidity inside the caves is incredible. You can actually see water floating in the air.

After the caves we rode down to the village of Calcehtok where we had lunch and were contemplating our options for the rest of the day. 13 km to Maxcanu was really hard to imagine, such great was our exhaustion. I think out of desperation, Nadya came up with an idea of energy drink and hoping it’ll do the miracle. It did, even though we didn’t know about it until we mounted our bikes again. The tiredness was gone. Not completely but our legs didn’t feel 100 kg each anymore. When we got to the point where we had to take a turn towards Maxcanu we quickly agreed on riding to the next town instead. The road was much better and wider so we could ride next to each other. We passed Calkini, which we thought was too big for camping at Palacio Municipal, and cycled to Dzitbalche 10 km further. Just before Calkini my speedometer showed 1000 km.

First 1000 kilometres

Our first thousand. I would’ve never said I’d get on a bike one day and ride such distance. It turned out they don’t have neither shower nor toilet at the Palacio Municipal. As always we were surrounded by a crowd of people and a number of questions were fired at us. One of the guys, Igor – Mexican not Russian, spoke decent English and showed us a hotel where we paid 20 pesos for a shower. We learnt that he’s a primary school teacher in Cancun and that’s the reason why he speaks English. After that, we found a ciber and he went home to ask his dad, if we could stay at their place for the night. He returned half an hour later to take us to his house. His father was already sleeping. They have the most beautiful house we’ve seen here so far. This is mainly because his dad is a carpenter and all their home furniture was handmade either by his dad himself or one of his employees. Igor’s mum passed away some 9 years ago, so we got to sleep in her room. The room was small and very simple but with a style. It was dominated by a double bed, though not long enough for my 185 cm. We slept like kings, at least that’s what it felt like.